Where we change:

Mission

The ISWA Scholarship Programme reaches out to youths who are informally recycling in open dumpsites. The programme consists of 54 students from Nicaragua, Honduras, India and Uganda. We have celebrated 21 graduations since the birth of the programme in 2015. Though we respect the free public service people provide by classifying trash, we also believe that dumpsites should be closed to child labor and must become organized. Open dumpsites provide a toxic environment that degrades the health of humans and local agriculture. As we encourage the trend of closing them down, we also want to help redirect people who have been working there through educational and job placement opportunities. The ISWA Scholarship Programme acts as a life-coach for all levels from elementary school, high school, university, as well as technical courses and points the direction towards a more opportunistic future.

Check out our hashtags: #TradingTrashForEducation #TheISWAscholarshipProgramme #ISWAkids

Goals

Our “Peace” of History

ISWA (International Solid Waste Association) and Timothy Bouldry met years ago at the 2013 Methane Expo in Vancouver in Canada which was hosted by the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency). Environmental photography was a growing need and the communities living and working in the informal sector from dump sites were becoming a more reoccurring theme and an important topic to consider for organizations taking an interest in improving the environment in developing nations. In 2015, ISWA invited Timothy Bouldry to give a presentation on health risks for communities living in these conditions at their ISWA World Congress '15 in Antwerp, Belgium. This opened a discussion about what would best help a community like this and from there The ISWA Scholarship Program was inspired. Former president of ISWA, David Newman, and the board of directors provided funding with the idea of removing 15 children from Managua, Nicaragua's city dump known as La Chureca and providing them with a quality education for two years. Since that short time ago, the programme has expanded to 80 students in 7 different countries with 21 graduates.